Jesus Weeps Over Death: Processing this Week's Tragedy

Resurrection of Lazarus. Private coll., Athens. 12-13 c. Воскрешение Лазаря

I wanted to take a moment this week to pause and do three things: 1) follow up on a portion of my sermon from last Sunday (you can listen to it here), 2) process the recent mass shooting in Nashville, TN, this week in light of what I preached on Sunday, and 3) give the text of Jacob of Sarug that I have found so helpful and quoted in my sermon.

Processing a Mass Shooting

Many of us this week have been following the horrific story of the mass shooting that took place at Covenant Presbyterian Church and School in Nashville, TN. The attacker killed three children: Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney. The attacker also killed three adult employees: Cynthia Peak (61), Katherine Koonce (60), and Mike Hill (61). What will likely follow this incident (and rightly so) is a debate about gun control legislation; however, I want to take a moment to put that debate aside and feel grief about Evelyn, Hallie, William, Cynthia, Katherine, Mike, and others who are the victims in mass shooting incidents already this month (See more data in the Gun Violence Archive).

This week I have been brought to tears a number times processing what it might feel like to drop our child off at school and then not to pick them up again; not to say goodbye (I pray that none of us reading this will know this grief). There are a number of challenging mornings we have had with tears, arguments, and rushing out the door to get to school. Sometimes my only consolation throughout the day is that our child will have had a good day at school and forget how challenging the morning was. When I pick our child up, he is happy to see me; it is like no frustration or tears happened that morning. Because of my stage of life, my heart has been breaking personally for the three sets of parents were robbed of their children this week.

Lazarus and the Love of God

On Sunday we read about the raising of Lazarus, where Jesus meets his friends, Mary and Martha, who each come to Jesus , weeping, reminding him that if he had come sooner, their brother Lazarus would not have died. They knew Jesus to be a miracle worker, but they did not yet know him to be one with power over death itself. I can imagine anyone experiencing the death of a loved one in a mass shooting saying something similar: “Jesus, if you had been here, my loved one would not have died.”

We talked on Sunday about how Jesus does not love and then abandon, which is why the sisters appeal to him, saying “Lord, he whom you love has grown ill” (John 11:3). I still affirm this to be true about the nature of God in the face of such tragic events this week, but I will be the first to admit that it is challenging to affirm it and we should resist any urge to explain it. Our hope stems from the fact that God loves and does not abandon, and as we will see next week, this is the hope given to us in Good Friday.

The second part of the sermon was focused on God’s desire to renew His creation. God creates, orders, and calls His creation good. Satan introduced sin, death through sin, and a chaos the undoes what is good in God’s creation. That we, as human beings, continue to look for new and efficient ways to kill one another should be a source of deep sorrow because this does not show the goodness of God’s creative work. We come to John 11:33-37 where we read the following verses:

33 When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled.34 “Where have you put him?” he asked them. They told him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Then Jesus wept. 36 The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him!” (NLT)

Jesus wept and experienced a deeply troubled anger. As he looks up and sees Mary and the crowds weeping for Lazarus, he sees weeping that comes from the brokenness introduced into God’s creation. Jesus wept and this shows us the humanity God incarnate. Jesus raised the dead and this shows us the divine nature and power of God incarnate. God will wipe away every tear from our eyes when he ultimately restores creation; however, right now it is appropriate to look up at the chaos around us (like Jesus did at the tomb of Lazarus) and weep that things now are not as they should be (cf. Rom. 8:22).

Jacob of Sarug (ca. 451-521)

I often stick with modern commentaries in my sermon preparation, but I remembered that Jacob, the Bishop of Sarug, has a homily on the raising of Lazarus. I didn’t find any adequate responses to why Jesus wept in my modern commentaries so I turned to an ancient saint. He is one of my favorite pastor-theologians in the history of the church and his homily on Lazarus has not been translated for publication, so I translated a portion of it for the sermon. I wanted to give the text that I quoted below for anyone who wants something to meditate on this week. I also would encourage you to pray the Great Litany at some point this week, which is a long and wonderful prayer that intercedes for the needs of the world.

Here is  a link to a biographical entry on Jacob and here is a link to the source text from Bedjan's edition (the section begins at the 3rd to last line on page 574). I pray that this section blesses you as you read over it.

His tears came from sadness with great agony
about humanity which death destroyed and cast down to Sheol.

He wept about the family of humanity, how it was ravaged
and brought low and became food for the serpent — and now the serpent has consumed it.

Because of the destruction which death brought upon humanity,
the Messiah wept, not about the dead one who was going to be resurrected.

Toward Lazarus he set his face, to resurrect him,
and about the resurrection which he was about to perform he was not weeping.

He wept about the great destruction which came upon humanity
and about how great the fall was of the beloved human family.

His tears flowed, for he saw that they were weeping at the end of their hope
and without a recollection of the resurrection of the dead in their memories.

He wept on account of us that he might be like us in all things
and he sent his power that he might perform a miracle which suited him.

In his tears which flowed, the Son of God resembles us
and in the resurrection that he made to dawn there, he resembles His Father.

God does not love and then abandon. God desires renew and restore what is broken and ravaged in His creation. in Jesus, we find God weeping for the brokenness of the way things are now and the one who has the power shine light into the darkness, to raise the dead, and to restore creation. Take time to grieve and process this week with the One who has conquered death and who will wipe away every tear from our eyes. To close, here is one of the Collects that ends the Solemn Collects from the Good Friday liturgy:

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.